The Tanuki CornerBlog: “Lord of the Rings is Pagan…” is One of the Dumbest Takes I’ve Ever Heard.
I know, I know…everybody is jumping on Jack Posobiec for this comment, but as a Tolkien fan and writing nerd, I’m jumping on the bandwagon of defending what is one of the greatest Christian works of fiction to have ever graced God’s green Earth.
But first, some backstory. On a recent episode of his podcast, Human Events Daily, Posobiec made the comment that LOTR is not overtly Christian, (which to some extent is true; I’ll get to that in a sec) and went so far as to say that it’s overtly pagan. He said: “There’s nothing overtly Christian about ‘Lord of the Rings.’ […] there’s no church in it, there’s no faith in it, there’s no Christ figure — there’s none of these things. And honestly, ‘Lord of the Rings,’ if it’s anything, […] is overtly pagan.” He also cited as further evidence of LOTR not being Christian that Tolkien notoriously didn’t like C.S. Lewis’ use of allegory in The Chronicles of Narnia series.
However, to begin our analysis of if Lord of the Rings (and the surrounding books such as The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The History of Middle Earth, etc.) is Christian or not, we must define what necessarily constitutes a “Christian” story. Is it the values of the story and the intent of the author that make it Christian, or is it the use of often painfully obvious allegory or messaging that makes it Christian?
Personally, I do believe that it’s a mix of both, but I lean more towards the intent of the Christian author to show Christ and the Gospel in some way, be it subtle or overt, and the values of the story that make it Christian. To quote Martin Luther: “The Christian shoemaker does his duty not by putting little crosses on the shoes, but by making good shoes.” A similar thing goes for Christian storytelling. If you can find a way to put in Christianity without making so painfully obvious that Dora the Explorer could find it, and people can find the Christian themes, then you’ve done your job. But if you make it so obvious that the story eventually feels less like a story and more like Christian propaganda, then you’ve lost not only the point of the story, but you also lose the non-Christian readers who may have otherwise been interested.
In the case of Tolkien and Lewis, while Lewis leaned towards overt allegory for his books, Tolkien – who was not a fan of allegory – leaned towards weaving Christianity into the fabric of the story subtly. According to Tolkien himself in Letter 142, “The Lord of the Rings is of course a fundamentally religious and Catholic work; unconsciously so at first, but consciously in the revision.” And while, yes, while The Lord of the Rings does take from Norse myths, and much of the subtlety of the Christian themes have been lost on people who wish to make it more pagan than it was intended to be (something that Tolkien worried about happening), Christ is still there.
Take, for instance, the characters of Gandalf and Aragorn. An argument can be made that these characters intentionally represent Jesus in different ways. Starting with Gandalf, according to The Silmarillion (which provides the background lore for The Lord of the Rings) he is of the Maiar, or the angelic beings that serve under the Valar (which you can think of as the archangels.) Because of Sauron’s following in the footsteps of Melkor (Morgoth), Gandalf was sent to Middle Earth to help the people fight against Sauron. While not a perfect representation of Christ, the image of a divine being living in the body of a mere mortal (very much like the hypostatic union) is stark. Even more like Christ is Gandalf’s death fighting the Balrog in the Mines of Moria and resurrection as “Gandalf the White,” an image of Christ’s death, resurrection, and glorification. Heck, one could even say that Gandalf the White is a sort of allegory for Christ’s second coming, when He will finally defeat Satan once and for all.
As for Aragorn, he is another Christ figure. At first, he’s a ranger, a seemingly random dude from the Dunedain (the descendants of the Numenorians who fled to Middle Earth after Numenor was destroyed). Bilbo’s description of him of, “All that is gold does not glitter,” is a parallel to Isaiah 53:2’s description of Jesus’ humble state. Further, his journey in the Path of the Dead and his dual role of healer and warrior is similar to Christ’s role of redeemer and conquering king that we see in Revelation, especially when he returns to the throne as a glorious king.
Further, one could also argue that Frodo and Sam are representative of Christ and the everyday Christian. As Frodo struggles on his mission to destroy the Ring, Sam is there helping him along the way. This is similar to how, as Christians we struggle to live godly lives, but Christ is there helping us through the Holy Spirit to stay on the straight-and-narrow.
Thus, while Tolkien never overtly named these characters as Christ figures, it is still obvious if you are willing to look at it through a Christian lens.
Further, to say that there is no faith in The Lord of the Rings is untrue. While faith is never fully defined or developed in LOTR, within the larger context of Tolkien’s legendarium, there absolutely is a faith – especially amongst the elves – that is deeply reflective of Tolkien’s belief in Catholicism.
The best example of this that I can think of is the Elves’ hymn to Elbereth Gilthoniel. This isn’t a song about some random person. In the larger legendarium, Elbereth is essentially a Mary-like figure to the elves, making this hymn very much like “Ave Maria.” When Sam calls out to her in Shelob’s cave, it’s essentially like saying a Hail Mary.
Even more damning for Posobiec’s statement are the allusions to Eru Iluvatar, the God of Tolkien’s legendarium, within The Lord of the Rings. According to The Silmarillion, The Book of Lost Tales, etc. Eru was seldom worshipped by the Elves because his name was considered to holy too utter. As Finrod says in “The Athrabeth” (which I will get to) in the book The History of Middle Earth: Morgoth’s Ring, “For that name we do not utter ever in jest or without full intent.” However, despite this, both the elves and men understood that Eru was the only one deserving of praise and believed the worship of any other to be evil. In fact, the men of Numenor had the mountain of Meneltarma dedicated to the worship of Eru in the Three Prayers that were held around the year.
Most interestingly, however, when thinking about faith in the world of Middle-Earth is that, Tolkien, in writing “The Athrabeth,” a lengthy dialogue between Finrod Felagund (Galadriel’s brother) and the human woman, Andreth, incorporated the idea that Eru Illuvatar would one day enter the world to save the Edain (mankind.) Though it’s better if you read the entire dialogue, I’ll include this excerpt from The History of Middle Earth: Morgoth’s Ring pages 318-323:
“This then, I propound, was the errand of Men, not the followers, but the heirs and fulfillers of all: to heal the Marring of Arda [the world of Middle-Earth], already foreshadowed before their devising; and to do more, as agents of the magnificence of Eru: to enlarge the Music and surpass the Vision of the World!
“For that Arda Healed shall not be Arda Unmarred, but a third thing and a greater, and yet the same. I have conversed with the Valar who were present at the making of the Music ere the being of the World began. And now I wonder: Did they hear the end of the Music? Was there not something in or beyond the final chords of Eru which, being overwhelmed thereby, they did got perceive?
“Or again, since Eru is forever free, maybe he made no Music and showed no Vision beyond a certain point. Beyond that point we cannot see or know, until by our own roads we come there, Valar or Eldar [Elves] or Men.
“As may a master in the telling of tales keep hidden the greatest moment until it comes in due course. It may be guessed at indeed, in some measure, by those of us who have listened with full heart and mind; but so the teller would wish. In no wise is the surprise and wonder of his art thus diminished, for thus we share, as it were, in his authorship. But not so, if all were told us in a preface before we entered in!”
“What then would you say is the supreme moment that Eru has reserved?” Andreth asked.
“Ah, wise lady!” said Finrod. “I am an Elda [elf], and again I was thinking of my own people. But nay, of all the Children of Eru. I was thinking that by the Second Children we might have been delivered from death. For ever as we spoke of death being a division of the united, I thought in my heart of a death that is not so: but the ending together of both. For that is what lies before us, so far as our reason could see: the completion of Arda and its end, and therefore also of us children of Arda; the end when all the long lives of the Elves shall be wholly in the past.
“And then suddenly I beheld as a vision Arda Remade; and there the Eldar completed but not ended could abide in the present for ever, and there walk, maybe, with the Children of Men, their deliverers, and sing to them such songs as, even in the Bliss beyond bliss, should make the green valleys ring and the everlasting mountain-tops to throb like harps.”
Then Andreth looked under her brows at Finrod: “And what, when ye were not singing, would ye say to us?’ she asked.
Finrod laughed. “I can only guess,” he said. “Why, wise lady, I think that we should tell you tales of the Past and of Arda that was Before, of the perils and great deeds and the making of the Silmarils! We were the lordly ones then! But ye, ye would then be at home, looking at all things intently, as your own. Ye would be the lordly ones. ‘The eyes of Elves are always thinking of something else,’ ye would say. But ye would know then of what we were reminded: of the days when we first met, and our hands touched in the dark. Beyond the End of the World we shall not change; for in memory is our great talent, as shall be seen ever more clearly as the ages of this Arda pass: a heavy burden to be, I fear; but in the Days of which we now speak a great wealth.” And then he paused, for he saw that Andreth was weeping silently.
“Alas, lord!” she said. “What then is to be done now? For we speak as if these things are, or as if they will assuredly be. But Men have been diminished and their power is taken away. We look for no Arda Remade: darkness lies before us, into which we stare in vain. If by our aid your everlasting mansions were to be prepared, they will not be builded now.“
“Have ye then no hope?” said Finrod.
“What is hope?” she said. “An expectation of good, which though uncertain has some foundation in what is known? Then we have none.”
“That is one thing that Men call ‘hope’,” said Finrod. “‘Amdir’ we call it, ‘looking up’. But there is another which is founded deeper. ‘Estel’ we call it, that is ‘trust’. It is not defeated by the ways of the world, for it does not come from experience, but from our nature and first being. If we are indeed the Eruhin, the Children of the One, then He will not suffer Himself to be deprived of His own, not by any Enemy, not even by ourselves. This is the last foundation of Estel, which we keep even when we contemplate the End: of all His designs the issue must be for His Children’s joy. Amdir you have not, you say. Does no Estel at all abide?“
“Maybe,” she said. “But no! Do you not perceive that it is part of our wound that Estel should falter and its foundations be shaken? Are we the Children of the One? Are we not cast off finally? Or were we ever so? Is not the Nameless the Lord of the World?“
“Say it not even in question!” said Finrod.
“It cannot be unsaid,” answered Andreth, “if you would understand the despair in which we walk. Or in which most Men walk. Among the Atani, as you call us, or the Seekers as we say: those who left the lands of despair and the Men of darkness and journeyed west in vain hope: it is believed that healing may yet be found, or that there is some way of escape. But is this indeed Estel? Is it not Amdir rather; but without reason: mere flight in a dream from what waking they know: that there is no escape from darkness and death?“
“Mere flight in a dream you say,’ answered Finrod. ‘In dream many desires are revealed; and desire may be the last flicker of Estel. But you do not mean dream, Andreth. You confound dream and waking with hope and belief, to make the one more doubtful and the other more sure. Are they asleep when they speak of escape and healing?”
“Asleep or awake, they say nothing clearly,” answered Andreth. ‘How or when shall healing come? To what manner of being shall those who see that time be re-made? And what of us who before it go out into darkness unhealed? To such questions only those of the (as they call themselves) have any guess of an answer.”
“Those of the Old Hope?” said Finrod. “Who are they?”
“A few,” she said; “but their number has grown since we came to this land, and they see that the Nameless can (as they think) be defied. Yet that is no good reason. To defy him does not undo his work of old. And if the valour of the Eldar fails here, then their despair will be deeper. For it was not on the might of Men, or of any of the peoples of Arda, that the old hope was grounded.“
“What then was this hope, if you know?” Finrod asked.
“They say,” answered Andreth: “they say that the One will himself enter into Arda, and heal Men and all the Marring from the beginning to the end. This they say also, or they feign, is a rumor that has come down through years uncounted, even from the days of our undoing.”
“They say, they feign?” said Finrod. “Are you then nor one of them?”
“How can I be, lord? All wisdom is against them. Who is the One, whom ye call Eru? If we put aside the Men who serve the Nameless, as do many in Middle-earth, still many Men perceive the world only as a war between Light and Dark equipotent. But you will say: nay, that is Manwe and Melkor; Eru is above them. Is then Eru only the greatest of the Valar, a great god among gods, as most Men will say, even among the Atani: a king who dwells far from his kingdom and leaves lesser princes to do here much as they will? Again you say: nay, Eru is One, alone without peer, and He made Ea, and is beyond it; and the Valar are greater than we, but yet no nearer to His majesty. Is this not so?”
“Yes,” said Finrod. “We say this, and the Valar we know, and they say the same, all save one. But which, think you, is more likely to lie: those who make themselves humble, or he that exalts himself?”
“I do not doubt,” said Andreth. “And for that reason the saying of Hope passes my understanding. How could Eru enter into the thing that He has made, and than which He is beyond measure greater? Can the singer enter into his tale or the designer into his picture?“
“He is already in it, as well as outside,” said Finrod. “But indeed the “in-dwelling” and the “out-living” are not in the same mode.”
“Truly,” said Andreth. “So may Eru in that mode be present in Ea that proceeded from Him. But they speak of Eru Himself entering into Arda, and that is a thing wholly different. How could He the greater do this? Would it not shatter Arda, or indeed all Ea?”
“Ask me not,” said Finrod. “These things are beyond the compass of the wisdom of the Eldar, or of the Valar maybe. But I doubt that our words may mislead us, and that when you say ‘greater’ you think of the dimensions of Arda, in which the greater vessel may not be contained in the less.
“But such words may not be used of the Measureless. If Eru wished to do this, I do not doubt that He would find a way, though I cannot foresee it. For, as it seems to me, even if He in Himself were to enter in, He must still remain also as He is: the Author without. And yet, Andreth, to speak with humility, I cannot conceive how else this healing could be achieved. Since Eru will surely not suffer Melkor to turn the world to his own will and to triumph in the end. Yet there is no power conceivable greater than Melkor save Eru only. Therefore Eru, if He will not relinquish His work to Melkor, who must else proceed to mastery, then Eru must come in to conquer him.
“More: even if Melkor (or the Morgoth that he has become) could in any way be thrown down or thrust from Arda, still his Shadow would remain, and the evil that he has wrought and sown as a seed would wax and multiply. And if any remedy for this is to be found, ere all is ended, any new light to oppose the shadow, or any medicine for the wounds: then it must, I deem, come from without.“
“Then, lord,” said Andreth, and she looked up in wonder, “you believe in this Hope?“
“Ask me not yet,” he answered. “For it is still to me but strange news that comes from afar. No such hope was ever spoken to the Quendi. To you only it was sent. And yet through you we may hear it and lift up our hearts.” He paused a while, and then looking gravely at Andreth he said: “Yes, Wise-woman, maybe it was ordained that we Quendi, and ye Atani, ere the world grows old, should meet and bring news one to another, and so we should learn of the Hope from you: ordained, indeed, that thou and I, Andreth, should sit here and speak together, across the gulf that divides our kindreds, so that while the Shadow still broods in the North we should not be wholly afraid.”
This should be of interest to any who wish to say that The Lord of the Rings is pagan as Tolkien wrote LOTR as a mythology for Britian and some very devoted Tolkien fans have even tried to line up where the events of Tolkien’s lore would’ve lined up with our real-world history. As such, what Finrod says in this lengthy excerpt is – if we are to treat Tolkien’s work as a mythological history of Europe – a sort of prophecy about the coming of Jesus. It’s also interesting to note that in Tolkien’s idea of what the end of Middle Earth would look like, it was very much like what we see in Revelation. A battle called the Dagor Dagorath would happen, Melkor would be slain, and it would all culminate in the world being remade.
From this, we can see that by its own merits – without even taking into account what Tolkien himself said about the faith woven into his work – that The Lord of the Rings and the larger legendarium, as a mythology for Britian, is a Christian work, or, at the very least, a Catholic one. It has a faith that, even if it is not shown overtly, is shown throughout the story in various forms. Though it is true that Tolkien was influenced by the Greek and Norse myths when creating his secondary world, The Lord of the Rings and its history is still a fundamentally Christian work.
Until next time,
M.J.
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